Adelaide Heat Wave

Now, isn't that tricky of me? Calling a blog post something that could easily be typed in a google search? What a great way to get more hits!

This is now the tenth day (breaks Perth's record!) and it's forecast to continue for at least the next 6 days... That'll be over two weeks with the daily high over 35 C. I know that doesn't sound too hot, but remember that is SHADE temp. I'm going to go look out the window now where my digital temp thingy is sitting on the table next to the pool in the sun. Hang on, be right back.

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I'm back (can you tell?). Temps not too bad, 121 F but it is overcast. That's around 50 C. A lot better than the 140 F I saw a couple of days ago. Still though, I'll be having dinner in the pool again tonight :)

We won't break the all time aussie record held by Marble Bay though... 160 days straight of temps like this! This was back early 1900's and I doubt anyone was living there except for the guy who checked the thermometer.

The good news is that the laundry doesn't take very long to dry out on the line.

A couple of years ago I decided to go on a road bike ride on the hottest day of the summer at the hottest time of day. I know, you are all asking "Why?"

Can I cop out and use Ming's answer of "Why not?"

No, I actually had a reason. See, I used to winter mt bike in the interior of Alaska. Coldest temp I'd ridden at was -58 F (-46 C) with a windchill of -92 F (-70 C). I figured if I went for a ride at +46 C then it would be kinda neat. You know, -46 and +46?

Anyways, I've since found out the +46 C was the shade temp and the temp on the road with no shade or shelter was that +140 F (+60 C).

So NOW I can say (boast) that I've ridden a bicycle for over an hour in a windchill of -92 F AND ridden a bicycle for over an hour with a road temp of +140 F! That's a temp dif of 232 degrees F.

Do I get some sort of prize for this? Or did the Alaska rides freeze my brains and then the Oz rides melted them and they all leaked out?

Do you want to hear about how much fun I had on the road ride when the road temp was 140 F? Well sure you do otherwise you wouldn't have read this far.

All I did was ride from Seacombe Gardens, up South Road hill, around the Happy Valley reservior, back down the hill, and back home. Short ride, I can do it with my eyes closed in less than 40 mins without even breathing hard.

This time it took 1 hour and 15 mins...

I took 3 large water bottles with me, ended up wishing I had 5! As soon as the road tilted upwards it I was breathing fire. Everyone remembers the Balrog scene in LOTR, right? Remember when he was belching fire out? Yeah, that was me going up the hill...

Here's the kicker, the South Road hill is only 4% and it's less than 2 km long! It hurt... I had finished the first water bottle before even getting to the top.

(quick aside: the sun is back out and it's 137.8 F on the white table next to the pool)

On the far side of the reservior there a very short but very steep hill climb, my second bottle was empty before I even got to it. I think this time I was not only breathing fire but actually inside the furnace itself.

The last water bottle I finished up with still 30 mins ahead of me to get home at what was for me a snails pace; I could barely keep up 30 kmh on the flats. When I finally got around the reservior and was done with any hills at all I told myself that it's all downhill from here! Isn't that supposed to the fun part? No traffic (all the smart folk were inside), 3 wide, smooth lanes with nice sweeping curves that are loads of fun! Wee-hoo!

Not this time... not this time...

I had to ride my brakes! Very embarrasing! I wanted to get home as quick as possible, but having 140 degree air shoved into my mouth at 80 kmh didn't sound fun. Besides, when I got going any faster than 60 kmh (38 mph) the hot hot hot air would find it's way around my wrap around sunnies (that's oz for sunglasses) and dry my eyes out so that I couldn't see. Not fun.

When I finally got home, the most wonderful woman in the world (my wife) took one look at me and promptly sat me in front of the a/c and brought me as much luke warm water as I wanted. Apparantly my skin was pale (it was tanned, but not just right then), waxen, my cheeks were sunken and my eye socket were hollow.

The next day I was out for a 2 hour ride, in the early morning before the sun was up! See, I can learn!

All this typing has got me severely heat stressed, so I'm off to the pool, ta.